Off to the West Coast

The prime focus of our visit to Scotland was the west coast and the Hebridean Isles...and today we were heading over there. We had a rather long day's drive in front of us so we made a reasonably early start...and immediately headed in the wrong direction up to the Linn of Dee. This was actually intentional as this was another place close to Braemar that was recommended to us but we just didn't have time to visit.

Looking up the River Dee towards the Linn of Dee

Looking back down the River Dee

We returned to Braemar and set off south along the A93, up and over the Cairngorms at the Glenshee Ski Centre and down into "Perth and Kinross". We turned west on the B950 to Kirkmichael where we picked up the A924 to Pitlochry where we stopped for some lunch...along with about 20 tour buses we found out later. From Pitlochry we took a short run south on the A9 to pick up the A827 to take us further west to Loch Tay. While The A827 runs down the west side of Loch Tay, we took a minor road down the east side and were rewarded with some magnificent views of the Loch.

On the B950 to Kirkmichael

On the A924 to Pitlochry

Life is a beach on Loch Tay

Looking across Loch Tay

Looking along Loch Tay with Ben More in the distance

We rejoined the A827 at the head of the Loch and then shortly joined the A85. We could have stayed with the A85 to our destination...Oban...but Loch Lomond was only a short distance way down the A82 and we just had to go. We followed Loch Lomond for a while and turned onto the A83 at Tarbet. This took us through the Argyll Forest Park and through a pass at Cairndow and down to Inveraray on Loch Fyne. We left the A83 here and took the A819 northwards to rejoin the A85 to take us into Oban and to our B&B. After checking in, we walked down into the town and took a tour of the Oban Distillery before having dinner.

Looking along Loch Lomond

Looking back down on the Argyll Forest Park